How to Refinish Rosewood Furniture With Sanding

Rosewood is as hard and durable as maple.

Rosewood is a rich, oily exotic hardwood that you often find incorporated into marquetry projects, musical instruments and jewelry boxes as well as fine furniture. It is not the least expensive hardwood out there, so if you have a piece of furniture made from rosewood, it is worth expending the effort to keep it in tiptop shape. This may involve some sanding -- so before you start -- you need to know whether you have veneered furniture.

Sanding Veneers

Because of the expense involved in using solid rosewood, many tables and cabinets are veneered, and veneers can be a thin as 3/32 inch. You can easily sand through such a thin surface -- especially at the edges -- so it is best to sand by hand, going with the grain of the wood, and checking your progress frequently. If you are not sure whether the piece you are about to refinish is veneered, look at the edges of the wood. Solid wood shows end grain while veneered pieces have beading with grain that runs parallel to the edge. The junction between the veneer and the beading is especially vulnerable to wear-through when sanding.

Sanding Solid Rosewood

With a Janka hardness of 1780 -- a scale that measures the wood's resistance to denting -- rosewood is harder than any domestic hardwood, but it is still considered one of the softer exotic woods. You should be able to get dents and defects out of solid, flat surfaces without resorting to sandpaper coarser than 100 grit. Use a pad sander, and follow up by sanding again with 120-, 150- and 220-grit paper. But when using 150- and 200-grit paper, sand by hand and go with the grain. The oiliness of the wood may shorten the life of the paper; have extra on hand so you do not run out.

Wiping Varnish

You will destroy the patina of old rosewood by sanding, but you may not have a better alternative. You may be able to restore some of that patina by making your own wiping varnish. It is a thin solution of varnish and thinner; a good mixture is approximately 3 parts mineral spirits to 1 part varnish. Put the solution in a shallow tray, dip a rag into it and rub it very lightly onto the surface, going with the grain. It penetrates just as oil does, and when the varnish hardens, it gives the wood a natural shine.

Other Refinishing Techniques

Sunlight bleaches rosewood and transforms its naturally dark, rich tone into a sandy tan color. The best way to restore the color is with wood dye, which soaks deeper into the wood pores than pigment satin. After brushing or spraying the dye, two or three subsequent coats of wiping varnish, each followed by light sanding with 400-grit sandpaper will seal in the color. You can also wipe on thin shellac and rub it in -- a technique known as French polishing. Rosewood is such an attractive material that an industrial-strength coating like polyurethane seldom suits it.